Title: Job Training for Juveniles: Project CRAFT
Series: Fact Sheet
Author: Robin Hamilton and Kay McKinney
Published: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention
Subject: Restitution, alternatives to incarceration -
juveniles
pages: 6
bytes: 9,000
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August 1999 #116
Job Training for Juveniles: Project CRAFT
by Robin Hamilton and Kay McKinney
A successful vocational training program for
high-risk youth and juvenile offenders sponsored by
the Home Builders Institute (HBI), the educational
arm of the National Association of Home Builders
(NAHB), is addressing youth crime and unemployment
and helping to reduce recidivism. The program
provides these youth with social, personal, and
vocational skills and employment opportunities to
help them achieve economic success and avoid
involvement in criminal activity.
The Community Restitution and Apprenticeship Focused
Training program, or Project CRAFT, was started in
1994 by HBI in three demonstration sites (Bismarck,
ND; Nashville, TN; and Sabillasville, MD) with a
grant from the U.S. Department of Labor. The program
has been replicated in five sites in Florida (Avon
Park, Daytona Beach, Fort Lauderdale, Lantana, and
Orlando) with funding from the Florida Department of
Juvenile Justice and in Texas with support from the
Texas Youth Commission. Several other States have
also expressed interest in replicating the project.
Program Description
Project CRAFT offers preapprenticeship training and
job placement in the home building industry and
related occupations for adjudicated youth referred to
the program by their State departments of juvenile
justice. The program uses a holistic approach that
combines career training, support services
(employability training, social skills training, case
management, etc.), and community service activities
sponsored by the construction industry. Project CRAFT
can be used as a prevention or intervention program
or as an alternative to incarceration. Project CRAFT
can be implemented in residential juvenile
correctional facilities, or it can operate as a
community-based program for youth in aftercare or
under day treatment supervision.
HBI's Project CRAFT model includes 10 components:
outreach and recruitment; assessment and screening;
individualized development plans; case management
services; industry-validated, trades-related
training; building industry-related academics;
community service; academic preparation and substance
abuse treatment; employability and life skills
training; and community transition and long-term
followup. HBI, juvenile correctional facilities, and
other providers coordinate the juveniles' treatment
plans so that they mirror Project CRAFT's goal of
providing hands-on community service training
projects that teach industry-related skills and
reinforce worker skills and positive attitudes and
behaviors.
Students receive preapprenticeship certificate
training, an industry-validated curriculum, which
includes 840 hours of hands-on training and classroom
instruction in the use of tools, safety, work habits,
and trades-related mathematics. Training focuses on
skill achievement; students must master several
skills related to the building industry before they
are eligible for graduation and job placement. A
student's performance is evaluated weekly by Project
CRAFT journey-level instructors. After graduating
from the program, participants are placed in
industry-related jobs and receive long-term followup
services.
Project CRAFT is sponsored by the home building
industry and receives support from local Home Builder
Associations (HBA's). These relationships provide
direct links to home building industry employers and
job opportunities. Many local HBA's provide Project
CRAFT with in-kind contributions and employment
opportunities for graduates.
Program Partnerships
The program works in partnership with private
juvenile and corrections facilities, juvenile judges,
juvenile justice system personnel, education
agencies, community-based organizations, and other
human service agencies. In some instances, juvenile
judges and probation officers refer youth directly to
Project CRAFT; in other cases, Project CRAFT staff
provide vocational training while personnel from
other partnering agencies provide case management,
substance abuse treatment, or other services that are
part of care in a residential facility. Integration
of these services and access to community aftercare
services have been instrumental in ensuring that
youth make a successful transition back into their
communities. Project CRAFT personnel work hard to
involve communities in the program. Local builders
make presentations to program participants about
working in the industry and often hire Project CRAFT
graduates. The students also become involved in
community projects and take field trips into the
community.
Project CRAFT has developed successful partnerships
with local school districts that allow students to
receive education credits for the work they do
through Project CRAFT, with mentors who talk to
students on topics related to life skills, and with
organizations that work with the students and make
in-kind donations of equipment and materials.
The program also has developed partnerships and
relationships with community-based organizations,
community development organizations, housing
authorities, developers, housing agencies, Habitat
for Humanity, local governments, historical
societies, and other organizations. These
partnerships help the youth reintegrate into the
community and provide the community with skilled
workers and volunteers.
Outcomes
The project was independently evaluated over a 4-year
period by Resource Development Group, Inc. (RDG), of
Bowie, MD. According to an executive summary
published by RDG in 1999, evaluators documented the
following outcomes:
o--Project CRAFT has a high rate of job placement for
its graduates. By the end of the national program
(September 1998), 94 of the 140 graduates in the 3
original demonstration sites had been placed in jobs
in the home building industry.
o--The cumulative recidivism rate for students
participating in Project CRAFT at the three national
demonstration sites was 26 percent, which is
significantly lower than the national rate of 70
percent (as cited in the executive summary). The
recidivism rate at the Nashville, TN, site was 15
percent the first year and 5.9 percent the second
year.
o--Project CRAFT also has been successful in
providing long-term followup for juvenile offenders
after release and community placement. This helps
ensure the adjustment and stability of these
offenders after they return to their communities.
Project CRAFT is demonstrating its effectiveness in
working with a range of juvenile and adult
corrections systems, including those operated by
private organizations under contracts with State and
local governments, State and local
government-operated facilities, and community
corrections systems.
For Further Information
For additional information on the Project CRAFT
program, contact:
Home Builders Institute
National Association of Home Builders
1090 Vermont Avenue NW., Suite 600
Washington, DC 20005
202-371-0600 or 800-795-7955; 202-898-7777 (fax)
postmaster@hbi.org (e-mail)
Internet: www.hbi.org
To obtain copies of publications from the Office of
Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, contact:
Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse
800-638-8736; 301-519-5212 (fax)
puborder@ncjrs.org (e-mail)
Internet: www.ojjdp.ncjrs.org
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Robin Hamilton is the National Coordinator of Project
CRAFT. Kay McKinney is a Writer-Editor in OJJDP's
Information Dissemination Unit.
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The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention is a component of the Office of Justice
Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice
Assistance, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the
National Institute of Justice, and the Office for
Victims of Crime.
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FS-99116